Client-side browsing applications, such as web browsers, are tools for viewing multimedia content, such as web pages. A web page is displayed by loading one or more script files that define page content and function into a browser. According to various embodiments, script files maybe encoded in a markup language, such as HTML or XML, and may also include instructions from scripting languages, such as JavaScript. Script files may reference other script files and/or content files, which store formatted graphics, audio and/or video for additional display and sound.
Web pages are typically served upon request by a host server. A web browser requests a web page from the server by specifying an address, such as a URL (Universal Resource Locator), in a content request message, such as an HTTP request message (i.e., HyperText Transport Protocol). A URL is an address identifying the location of a resource, such as a script file or content file. User-specified parameters may be appended to the URL in the form of a query string (i.e., “?<parameter1>=<value1> . . . ”) providing for customized and/or interactive page content implemented through server-side processing.
Most browsers have the ability to locally cache web pages by caching the constituent script and content files on the client computer's hard drive as they are loaded. Caching improves browser performance such that a web page can be loaded directly from cache memory, avoiding additional network and processing delays.